1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an arm of a motorcycle stabilizer and a mount for holding such arm substantially parallel to the frame of the motorcycle when such arm does not have an aperture through which a pin attached, directly or indirectly, at one end to the frame of the motorcycle can extend.
2. Description of the Related Art
A motorcycle stabilizer reduces the tendency of the front wheel of the motorcycle to wobble when it strikes a bump.
A housing contains a vane, also termed a wiper, which separates the two sides of the interior of the housing. There is transmission fluid on both sides of the housing and within a passage which connects the sides of the housing. A valve in the passage controls how hard it is for the fluid to flow through the passage between the two sides of the interior of the housing.
The general interior workings, i.e., primarily the vane within the housing, are shown well in the first three figures of U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,514, which, for convenience, have been attached hereto. In that particular patent, the flow of the fluid is through the cover. In others, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,884, the flow is through the body of the housing, itself, or, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,208, through the wiper.
The housing is indirectly connected to the front wheel of the motorcycle, e.g., by being attached to the handlebars of the motorcycle. An arm is connected below the housing to a shaft that is, in turn, connected to the wiper (with appropriate o-rings involved to prevent a loss of the fluid).
In the prior art a pin is connected to the frame of the motorcycle as well as to the arm from the wiper. Consequently, the arm holds the vane parallel to the frame of the motorcycle. Thus, when the front wheel of the motorcycle rotates, the housing rotates about the vane. This pushes fluid from the interior side of the housing which is moved closer to the vane, through the passage, to the interior side of the housing which is moved farther from the vane. The harder that it is for the fluid to flow through the passage (based on the setting of the valve), the more damping there will be with regard to movement of the front wheel.
FIG. 5 in U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,884 shows the connection of the arm 33 having a first end 34 attached to the vane and a second end 35 connected to a pin of the prior art.
The top of the pin was, in practice, traditionally loosely held in a channel within the arm, and the bottom was loosely held in a cavity within the frame of the motorcycle (or something rigidly attached to the frame of the motorcycle).
A yoke 21, shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 containing a cavity 15 is utilized to connect the prior-art pin 16 to the frame 100 of a motorcycle 101, as illustrated in FIG. 5. Rather than having the second end 6 of the arm 2 fit into a channel 7 in the yoke 1, as is done with the present invention, the second end 6 of the arm 2 contains an aperture 19 into which the upper end 18 of the prior-art pin 16 fits. The lower end 17 of the prior-art pin 16 is contained within the cavity 15.
The hydraulic damping device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,514, though, appears to be an aberration in the way the arm 9a is connected to the frame of a motorcycle. The text of the disclosure merely says, in lines 17 through 21 of column 3, “A shaft extension 8a (only visible in FIG. 2) extends downwards from the casing 6 and is rigidly connected to a radial arm 9, the free end 9a of which is secured to a bracket 4b at the upper part of the motor cycle [sic] frame.”